London Buses route S1

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S1
London Buses

Management
Operated by	Quality Line (Epsom Coaches)
Garage	Epsom
Vehicle	Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 Dart chassis, with East Lancs Myllennium bodywork, but with Esteem front and rear ends.
PVR †	8
Route
Start	Mitcham
Via	St. Helier Sutton Belmont station
End	Banstead
Length	9 miles (14 km)
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	Every 20 minutes, 15 in the peaks, and 30 on Sundays.
Journey time	45-55 minutes
Day	05:25am until 23:45pm
Night	same as above
Adult single fares
Oyster	90p
Cash	£2.00
† peak vehicle requirement Transport for London • Performance
London Transport Portal

London Buses route S1 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Quality Line.

1 History
2 Current route
- 2.1 Route departing Mitcham
- 2.2 Route departing Banstead
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Service S1 started in 1993, operated by London & Country, running between Beddington through to Sutton, using mainly previously unserved. At first, the Sutton end had a deviation incorporating Langley Park Road before buses got to Sutton, but this was altered to a loop working in 1995. The next contract change was on 30 November 1996, when the route was tendered with the "Sutton network". The new tender was awarded to London General, who used new Marhall Minibuses running from Sutton garage. The service via the north of Langley Park Road was replaced by route S3, with the S1 rerouted to Banstead to replace the 80. Between Sutton and Belmont, the route was diverted via the south end of Langley Park road, replacing the S3.

In 1997, London General suffered a severe staff shortage, and as a result surrendered several of its services, one being the S1. This was when Quality Line took over, but they did not want the now known to be unreliable Marhall Minibuses, and opted for Optare MetroRiders instead. This was one of the rare cases where a route was converted from low floor to high floor buses.

In Summer 1998, the route was improved, with an evening and Sunday service introduced. The vehicles were also replaced by low floor Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer Mini Pointer Dart, which entered service from late 1998 to early 1999.

The next contract stared in December 2001, which incorporated a daytime frequency increase from every 30 to 20 minutes, and the route terminus in Beddington Corner was changed to Mitcham. The vehicles were also upgraded again, now to Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200s. The latest vehicles, introduced in 2006, are unusual in having the East Lancs Myllennium bodywork, but with East Lancs Esteem front and rear ends. The chassis are the Dart's successor, the Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 Dart.^[1] ^[2]